CFF Tools

Web 2.0 Introduction: 4 Weeks to a Flatter Us

Wikispaces Intro: A "wikispace" is an online tool custom-built for collaboration. This page summarizes a workshop presented to UM CFF teachers on 6/12/2008.

Google Notebook: This tool works as a firefox extension to allow you to easily collect, organize, and share resources you found on the internet. After clicking a notebook icon, you can highlight text or pictures, click a star icon, and voila! you've saved both the highlighted materials AND a link to revisit the source. You can also invite other people to share your notebook, as viewers or contributors, by entering their email address. Makes bibliographies much easier! Makes sure you don't lose track of the perfect reference! You will need to install BOTH the Google Toolbar and the Google Notebook extensions. A competitor with similar online tools is http://zoho.com/index.html. For collaborative online diagramming tool, try http://www.gliffy.com/.

Google News: With a google account, you can create a personalized news page. Think of how your project could be enhanced with up-to-the-minute news on your topic!

IMovie HD (previous version): While most of the features of this version of IMovie have been duplicated or enhanced in the new version, one great tool remains here. You can take a video clip, choose Editing, Video FX, and Fast/Slow/Reverse, to change the playback of your clip. Speed up a clip to simulate the passage of time! Slow down a clip to draw attention to details! Reverse a clip to create puzzling results! Then export the movie to a .mov file and integrate it into a project using the new version of IMovie.

OmniGraffle Professional: This is a versatile graphics tool. You can create your own autoshapes and connect them with lines to show relationships. If you have a set of shapes for students to manipulate, like chemical symbols, electrical circuit elements, force vectors, colored spotlights, or logic gates, you can create a stencil of shapes for students to draw from. Once they organize, connect, color, or measure the shapes, they can create text boxes to summarize their findings, and print to a .pdf file for submitting their work. You can create objects with text for them to order, match, or organize. There is also a series of brainstorming tools to facilitate class discussions!

OmniOutliner (with a dose of IPhoto) (Courtesy of Mark Erb, 6/12/08)
Use Safari, find picture online, ctrl-Click the image, Import Image into IPhoto, copy and paste url to "Info, description" of the image. Textclip to your desktop (highlight text and drag). Drag media, text, files into OmniOutliner, and save. The OO file will embed these items, so they are accessible to students who get the OO file from the Courses folder.

PhotoBooth
This tool allows you to take picture or short video clips using the camera built into the Macbook. After you click the red camera button, you will get a three-second count-down. Use it to take pictures of experiments in progress, or pencil sketches that would take too long to digitize!

Comic Life
This is a tool that allows you to integrate images, textboxes and dialog balloons in the manner of a comic book. It is ideal for giving students a template for putting ideas into their own words. An introductory lesson: students take their picture in Photobooth, grab images (and urls) online, and drag it into a ComicLife that introduces them to the class.

Skype
Bring in a guest speaker, conference with a e-pals class, or talk to your class from your conference location.

CoverItLive!
Create a live blog with contributions from your students. Comments typed and submitted can be posted immediately, or can require approval of a moderator to ensure appropriateness. Allows simultaneous commenting, unlike an off-line class discussion, and allows shy or quiet students to have the same impact as anyone. At the end of the session, students can select the most perceptive comments in constructing their own summary.

WebQuest
"A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. ...A real WebQuest is wrapped around a doable and interesting task that is ideally a scaled down version of things that adults do as citizens or workers. [It] requires higher level thinking, not simply summarizing. This includes synthesis, analysis, problem-solving, creativity and judgment.

"Here's the website where you can find widgets you can embed (into your website or wiki). Helps if you want widgets students can't access. Lots to choose from - careful though, some are personally addicting :)" -- courtesy of Lynda Newhart